Psalm 137: My Right Hand

posted Mar 5, 2013

May I also forget her cunning,
her tricky ability to say two things at once,
going one way with the wrist and another
with the fingers, to conceal a nutshell
in her palm and moons in her nails,
keeping an orchestra adrift together
tormenting a bad night's sleep with a hairs-
breadth rift. To reach, to feed, to be first,
the favored one. Let sticky things stick
in sticky places. Let breath gum up.
Let me stand upon boxes electric,
my face declaring cell by cell its death,
its features razed by my own mauled mitt
if I fail to remember this against you.

Amy Eisner teaches creative writing at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore. Her poetry has also appeared or is forthcoming in The Journal, Painted Bride Quarterly, and Valparaiso, among other publications. "Tributary" was first published in The Cape Rock.

We’ve published two more poems by Eisner: “Psalm 137: Tributary” and “Psalm 137: Happy.”